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This issue waspublished on: 16 July 2025
The next issue will be on sale: 15 August2025
Short Series Sought
Following the recentreader survey Ihave been looking at the articles lined up forthe magazine. Thereisone type of article that would seem to fit reader’sinterests very well, thatIhaverelatively fewof. That is shorter constructional series, in perhaps one to half adozen parts, featuring a
relatively straightforwardtool or model. MikeChrisp’s pipe bending kit, photographed at Harrogateten yearsago would be an example of something thatcould be coveredthis way. If anyone would likethe guidelines forcontributors, please do get in touch.
TheBradfordCup andStevenson Trophy 2025
Iwould liketoremindreadersof these twocompetitions. Full details and competitionrules were published in issue 4766; Ihaveonly received afew nominations so,ifyou can help ensureit’sareal competition, please getyour entries and nominations to me as soon as possible.
TheBradfordCup is awarded to the
Neil Wyat Editor Diane Carney Deputy Editor
author of the bestarticle or series in Model Engineer/Model Engineer &Workshop during the previous year.Tomakeanomination, please send the name of the author and the article in question to meweditor@ mortons.co.ukby 25 July 2025. Th eJ ohn Stevenson Trophyi s presente dfor awell- made and usable piece of to oling,a modification to a machine or an acce ssory fo ra to ol where the fa ct it wo rkswell is morei mportant than making it look go od. To ente r, send fo ur go od photo graphs of yo ur entry with up to 500 wo rd sofd escription by email to mewe ditor@mortons .c o.uk no late r than 25 July 2025
KELSEYmedia
MPV290F -Movable Mill Head Lathe, Mill &Drill Combination Machine
There’slotsofextracontent to be found online to support past articles in Model Engineer& Workshop. Find out moreat: www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums
Download Luker’sRiser Design Methodology Calculator using this quick link or QR code: tinyurl.com/433h4v9n ➔
Download JohannesSchif’s curved slotcalculator using this quick link or QR code: tinyurl.com/4x662us9
Hottopics on the forum include:
Boiler Design tarted by Charles Lamont. Online discussion of the Yield Point Method.
Allthings BeaverMill started by Robert James 3. Severalyears ofaccumulated wisdom forowners of these versatilemachines.
Firth ValveGear started by Andy Stopford.Anunusual valvegear arrangementusedonFowler traction engines.
Come and have aChat!
As well as plenty of engineering and hobbyrelateddiscussion, we arehappyfor forum members to use it to shareadvice and support. Come and join us –it’sfreetoall readers!
On theCover Next Issue
Our coverfeatures Andrew Pope’s King ArthurClass locomotive Sir Mador de la Porte going upthe 1:70incline at Titchfield, during his runatthe 56th International Model LocomotiveEficiencyCompetition.Tofindout moreabout thecompetition,see page 52.
In our next issue,GerardDean describes thechallengeof bringing arather large modelaround theglobe.
Making theStuart Models Planer
Chris Gunn buildsan unusual model from castings and thismonth he starts by introducing the Stuart Models machine tool range.
Ihave alwaysbeen interested in miniaturemachine tools, maybe the very bestwerethose built by Barry Jordan exhibited some years ago. Inoticed recently thatthe Bridgeport miller and lathe he built wasup forauction, but thesewill have been sold long before this article gets into print.
When Stuart Models introduced their rangeofmachine tool casting sets Iboughtthem as theycame out and have completedthem all. Ialso had an example of the steam hammer from wayback whichisanold favouritesince thecastingsbusiness was part of Stuart Turner Photograph 2 shows the wood turning lathe, and photo 3 the metal turning lathe, which looksabit barewithout aworkpiece in place.
Photograph 4 shows the shaper, also without avice or workpiece. Photograph 5isthe drill, this timeI did makeasmall drilling jig to cross drill some pins, and clamps to hold it to the table.
Having built the machine tools Ithen becameinterestedin puting together aminiaturemachine
shop,having seen examples of these at various exhibitions and museums. One of my favouriteminiature machine shops wasseen at the Edison Ford museum in Fort Myers, Florida. Henry Ford built awinter homeinFort Myers, and wasjoined by his friend Edison. They setupsome workshops and laboratories thereand amongst other thingsused these to look foralternatives to natural rubber Moreinformation can be had at www. edisonfordwinterestates.org.
One is able to visit the workshop and laboratory,which has amixture of scientific equipmentand machine tools driven by line shafs. In the museum section can be found many Edison relateditems, including
phonographs, and docents lecture and demonstratethe phonographs which Ifound very interesting.
Thereisalso amodel of the lab workshop Photograph 6 shows the real workshop,with the lathe frontand centre, and apart of the shaper in the botomright corner Photograph 7 shows the model with the lathe in the centreforeground and the shaperto its right.
By the time Isaw this in November 2017,Ialready had this project developing in my head so Itook picturesof the line shafingaswell, as Iintended to install this in my diorama. Photograph 8 shows some of the line shafing in the real workshop
Ialso sawsome pictures of a diorama with some machine tools from PM Rkits, with the line shafing driving them all, poweredbya Stuart Models Victoria engine. Idecided to geta Victoria kit from Stuarts and soon had thatunderway, photo 9.Ialso had alook at the PM Rwebsite and theylistvarious machine tools and also line shafing kits; photo 10 shows the un-machined PM Rkit, with the twosizes of whitemetal pulleys
Photo 1: The Stuart ModelsPlaner.
They also stock some items to fit out aworksofice, and doorsand windows to suit, which Ibelieve areitems used in dolls’houses. This is handy, as the items aretothe samescale which meansone can add anyitems thatcan be found in the dolls’house catalogues, so one could add aketle, teapot and mugs, as no engineering ofice is complete without these essentials!
on his CNC lathe, so Itook it apart again and paintedit. This toolooked good enough to build aminiature machine shop around, in duecourse. Photograph 11 shows the under-type ready forwork!
Inow had the Stuart machine tools all done from wayback, plus the Victoria and/or the under-type to drive it all, and the PM Rline shafing kits ready to machine, together with some additional items forthe diorama.
About this time Ialso sawthe sample miniatureplaner on the Stuart Models stand at one of the UK exhibitions and this seemed ideal to include in my miniatureworkshop When Imade enquires, Iwas told that, at thattime, theyhad no plans to market it. HoweverI didn’t giveupand at the London exhibition in January 2019 Stuarts agreed to sell me aset of castingsand the hand drawndrawings. In due course the castingswereready and Itook delivery of them, and drawings, in March 2019
assembled the engine which ranvery well on air.Idecided to makeaboiler forit, which wasanice changeand kept the workshop warm fora few days in winter. Then Igot carried away and made aplinth and afriend turned up some handrail stanchions forme
Iwas notready to start on the planer as Iwas finishing a6”scale RustonProctor fora friend,but Idid come across some of the history of the developmentofthe planer in the book by L.T.C. Rolt entitled Tools for the Job.Myversion is the reprintby the Science Museum, an ex-library copyboughtfromAmazon. This is a good read if youare interested in the history of machine tools in the UK. At the time of writing therewerecopies still available.
Iread thatonce the lathe had been refined and accurateround work could be undertaken -and Maudslay had produced his leadscrew lathe to enable accuratescrew cuting,
Idecided to order some kits from their rangeand arranged forthem to be shipped to ahotel we were staying at in Fort Myers, Florida, afer checking the weights to ensureI could bring them back. This all worked perfectly, thankstoall involved, and Ihave started on some of these kits. Being mainly whitemetal-based castings, one needs to adoptdiferentmeans of holding some of the moredelicate items, so Iamhaving to makejigsto hold parts formachining.
To add to the mix Iwas lucky enough to pick up apart-machined setofcastingsfor the Stuart under-type engine online and, fortunately,these had been started by agood engineer and were beautifully machined. Ifinished of machining the castingsand
Original workshop at the Edison Ford Winter Museum. available.
Photo 6:
Photo2:The Wood Turning Lathe.
Photo 4: The Shaper.
Photo 3: The Metal Lathe.
Photo 5: The Pillar Drill.
Iworked on the Wun-up Litho S prototype when Iwas in the drawing ofice there, back in the mid 1960s. Ialso have acloser pictureof part of the Wun-up litho sideframe, which Imusthaveobtained at the time, showing the part Iwas working on, photo 15.Itcan be seen thatthe base of this machine is asteel fabrication rather than acastbed in the earlier versions.
measuring and dividing -then atention turnedtoproducing accurate flatsurfaces so theplaner gradually evolved. Theplaner and lathes were then able to reproduce themselves.
Ihavementioned before thatIserved my apprenticeship at Timsons in Ketering.Atthattime theywerevery big in the manufactureofprinting presses, building bespokemachines foranything from postagestamps to postal ordersand booksand also arangeofstandard small machines called the Wun-Up. They also had abig planer which wasimpressive.
Iwantedtoillustratethe type of work the planer at Timsons used to do in this article, so when Iwas looking
fora pictureofa typical printing machine, Istarted with acopyof the 100 Year Anniversary souvenir book thatemployees were given in 1996. Ilooked at the frontcover,and found apictureofthe factory way back,with all the machines driven from line shafing and, to my surprise, thereinthe middle lefisaplaner,of similar design to the Stuart model and next to it is alarge radial drill thatwas used to drill the frames, photo 12
Idid managetofindacouple of pictures of the Wun-Up machines in the book; the original one, photo 13, the first Wun-Up,and the Wun-Up Litho S, photo 14.(Photographs 12 to 14 areused with the permission of Timsons Engineering Ltd.)
All the printing machines Timsons made were built with castironside frames, up to 3” thick and up to 12 feet long and 3or4 feet wide. The frames were castintheir ownfoundry and were all machined on the large planer with abed about 5feetwide by 20 feet long.Asaraw apprentice in 1960 Iwas fascinatedwith this machine which wasthe biggestin the machine shop and asight to see in action. This wasakey machine in the process and manned by arather serious operator,Ken Pierce. At the end of the day, he wasmachining expensivecastingssoneeded to be dedicatedtohis job.Idiscussed this machine with acouple of my fellow apprentices at areunion recently,and learned thatthe planer hada DC drive, rather than the belt driveofthe Stuart model. In the winterofdiscontent the companyboughtagenerator to power the machine shop and someone had to come in early to start the generatorthen start the planer up earlytoo before the rest of the shop turned up and turned on.
Apart from the drive, the later Timson’s machine wassimilartothe model. Thetable used to whoosh back and forth, the DC drivereturning the table quicker than the cutingstroke, and the tool would takea serious cut of the face of the castings. If space allowed, twocastingswould be machined at the same time. On occasions the planer would machine the steel bed fabrications mentioned above,and then passers-bywould need asteel helmetasthe chips came of likebullets, blue and smoking Incidentally,the layout in the 1960s wasjustthe same as in the old picture above, photo 12. In thatpicture, next to theplaner wasalarge radial drill, used to drill the frames in pairs. When Iwas there, much lateronofcourse, the layout wasthe same; quitelogical Isuppose, as the frames would pass from the planer to the big drill. This wasprobably the second largest machine in the shop,manned by Bert Mills, one of the smallestmen in there. Bert Mills was the brother of one of the Cockleshell heroes of WW2, Marine William Mills who wasaKetering man. William Mills
Photo 8: Line shafing at the museum
Photo 7: The museum’s model workshop.
wasone of the fewwho completed his mission and placed his mines on the ships, then fled on foot with his shipmate. Both were caughtand shot as spies by the Nazis. As Iedit this,we have justpassed the 80th Anniversary of VE day; anumber of my older workmatesatthe time went through WW2 and yetmade litle of it.
Drilling the printerside frames was an exactingjob,asthe various holes forthe gearsand shafs had to be very accurately spaced to ensuresmooth running of all the gears. Alarge jig was
used forthe standardmachines but anybespokemachines had to be set out carefully Afew yearsbeforeIlef the company, theyboughtalarge jig borer from Germany, which wasinstalled in its ownclimate-controlled enclosuretomaintain accuracyand maybe to cossetwhatevercontrol system wasemployedatthe time, as we are talking early sixties -sonoCNC as we knowittoday. When the jig borer wasinstalled, the holes were drilled from coordinatescalculatedinthe drawing ofice, rather than using ajig on the radial drill. One of my jobs in the drawing ofice wasthen to check the hole coordinatesfrom the frame datum. Thecoordinates were calculatedbya lady using a mechanical calculator. Iwas given her results and expected to check them using another mechanicalcalculator and squareroottables to solvethe various triangles. During my stay in the drawing ofice, an electronic calculatorwas purchased to speed up the process and wasused forthe initial calculations. As farasIrecall this cost£3,000 in 1965 or so,equivalenttoover£50,000 today. Idread to think whatthe jig borer cost. The calculatorwas 24” wide by 12” backto frontand about 6” tall and fited with Nixie displaymodules about an inch
Photo 10: PMRline shaf kit.
Photo 11:Under-type engine on its plinth.
Photo 9: Horizontal steam engine, Victoria.
high. Idid have alook on the internet and found some information about early calculators and realised this could have been an Anita calculator,
made in the UK. This had been available in the righttime frame. Despite the high cost, the calculatorcould not do squareroots. It did, however, save time on other calculations. Our leader would only spring forone of these calculators so Iwas lefstill turning handlesonthe mechanical calculator. We musthavedone agood job though, as we neverhad anycomplaints.
In order to obtain permission to use the Timson’s pictures in my article, Idid payavisit to thecurrent machine shop to see if the planer was still thereand found it wasnot.Idid learn from one of the old hands working therethatitwas replaced by a Futurmill Plano miller, photo 16.That toowas long gone.
Ihaveprobably rambled on enough about my reasons fortackling the Stuart planer project so Iwill move onto its construction in futureissues.
To be continued
Photo 15: Aside frame of the Wun-Up Litho S.
Photo 16: Timson’s Futurmill Plano Miller.
Photo 12: Planer is visible at the lefinthe Timson Engineering workshop.
Photo 13: The firstmodel of the Wun-Up printing press.
Photo 14: The Wun-up Litho S.
PostBag is one of the mostpopular sections of themagazine -readerswant to hear from you! Drop us aline sharing your advice, questionsoropinions.Why notsend us apictureofyour latestworkshop creation,or that strangetool youfoundin abootsale?Email your contributions to meweditor@mortons.co.uk.
POLYM ERS IN TH EWORKSHOP 1
Dear Neil, Iwas pleased to re ad the fi rstp ar toft he art i cle entitled 'C heap Nasty Plastics'byPat rick H endra. As ac hild of manyp oly mers in the 50’so ne of my fi rstforaysi nto engineerin gi nm iniature, a p a rt f ro m Meccano,was pla st ic kits made by the Airfix company. Being able to so l ve nt we ld the po lyst yrene bits to gether witho ut st ickin gyours elf to the plastic with the high VO Cp lastic cementwas alwaysab it of luck ove r judgement, especially when under the influence of the snif fe ds olvent! Plastics have certainly come avery lo ng wayf ro mt he thermoset' Ba kelite' urea-fo rmaldehyd ea nd fo rma ldehyd e-reso rc inol polymerstot he mo de rn thermoplastics used so wid ely fo ra plethoraofa ppl i cati ons across al la re as of manufac turing. Sadly,m ostp lastics aren ot capable of being jo ined chemic al ly,l imitin g the eng ineer to mecha nical f ixings, u sually metal as Patr ick st ates. We used solventweldi ng a swell a s ra dio frequencyweldi ng a nd ultraso nic we lding in assem bling medic al singl eu se compon ents. Fo rmerly,
POLYMERS IN THEWORKSHOP 2
Iread with greatinterestPatrick Hendra's very worthwhile article (M E&W4766) on plastics. Having worked in the plastics industry in the UK and in the USAfor about 30 years, on materials ranging from polypropylene to PET film via continuous carbon fibrecomposites in Aerospace (both thermoset and thermoplastic resins, PEEK forexample)Ican morethan empathisewithmanyofthe points aroundpropertieshe raises. It's always wise to buy from areputablesupplier who provides aproper Data Sheet, metalorplastic. His commentabout the muddle between strength and rigidity echoes JEGordon's similar observation in 'The NewScience of Strong Materials'thatinour Western mind we tend to judgethatifa structureisrigid, it is also strong -not necessarily so.'Structures - or WhyThingsDon't Fall Down'
these wo ul dh aveb een fa bricate d from glass, metal, rubber etc. and th ew ide use of injection mouldi ng to produce plastic alternatives c ertainly re duced prices making infe ction control ,t hrough the use of single use devices, possible. Th eu se of plastics in additive fa brication using computer-controlled printe rs has revo lutionised ou ru nderst anding of whate ngineering is about. Th ep ossibility of using pl astics in aggressivea nd hi gh te mperat uree nv ironments as alternatives to metals is possib le, h owever,m aterial science te lls us th at it is unlikely thata part from toys ,p lastics will ever dominate in the hobbyist'sworkshop,u nt il sui table means of joining parts, a part from screwsa nd rivet s, is deve loped.
As ac hemistw ho enjoys mod el engineering,Il ook fo rwardtoh ow the twod iscipl ines can wo rk sy nergistically to br ing di fferentexc it in g plastics into our hobby.
Ro nB ar son, Chairman Bournemou th &D istr ict Soc iety of Model Engi ne ers
is also well worth reading.Both booksare still in printand available from the usual sources. But one commentI musttake issue with. 'Carbon fibresheetis incredibly strong and it doesn't dent!' Well, perhaps, but whatit can do afer an impact is crack between compositelayersbelow the surface with no signofsurface damage. Subsequentstress cycles can grow such cracking until the compositeisseverely delaminated,and the strength and rigidity compromised. This is especially the case with thermosetresinswhich arenot as tough as genuine engineering thermoplastic. That such failureofthe structurecan be sudden and catastrophic should need no emphasis on my part, giventhe dreadful loss of theCFcomposite hulled Titan at depth in the Atlantic in June 2023.
Dr MikeGray, Louth, Lincs
YI
ELD POI NT ME TH OD
Good Morning Neil, Thank youfor publishing our YPM article, there has been alively interest shown on the MEWforum and we have been activeinresponding to comments. One of the comments relatesto amistakeinacalculation in our published article andwehave responded with acorrection on the forum (see marked up excerpt). Please note thatthis in no way detracts from the philosophynor the conclusions of the article. We do apologise forthe error and will takesteps to upgrade our checking procedureshould there be any futurearticles.
Alan Brown, LesSmith, by email
WHEEL PROFILES
Dear Neil, InotethatMr. MJP of Louthasks about wheel profiles on P41ofME+ENo 4763. Yesthereare aprofusionofwheel standards which have been published over the yearsbut fora 5” gaugeloco Iwould stick to the Martin Evans one or the GL5 one. Thereisvery litlediference between the twoand quite frankly Ithought this had been dead and buriedlong ago. Starting at the very beginning Iwould notentertain anythingwith squareflanges.Itmightbe allrightfor araised trackbut theyshould neverbus used on aground leveltrack. Dennis Monk used to bring aparty piece with him to Gilling and it consistedofa pair of wagonaxles with wheels on, one had squareflangesand the other sethad all the correct profiles. He asked us the gather round where therewas quitea long dip in the ground leveltrack and just letthe axle withthe squareflanges run down the hill and then it ranback but on the second trial the No 1axle came cropper and de-railed but it had beenmuch lazierfromthe start. This happenedalmostevery time we tried theoperation. He then putthe other axle on the track and justlet the axle rundown the hill until it could notroll anyfurther and then it began to roll back again, gathering speed and it arrived almost back to the spotalmostlevel with our gathered friends were standing.Without doubt it is very importanttouse one of these two published profiles if youwantaneficient locomotive. Being one of the founder membersofGL5, Iofcourse favour the GL5versionbut thereisso litlediference between the twoitwill makeverylitle diference, so Mr.MJP the choice is yours! The thing is thatifthe flanges areall square youwill miss out on the diferential efect of the taper on the treadofthe wheel. Itmight
A7V TANK
Dear Neil, Iopened MEWNo. 4763 acouple of weeksago and therein SmokeRingswas mention of aWorld War1 German A7v tank. That setofa lightning flash of 'thatseems familiar to me, Iknowsomething about that, Ithink it is hereinAustralia'. Alitle bit of Google refreshed my memory. During apush back of German troops by Australian troops at Villers-BretonneuxinApril 1918 TheGermanA7v tank namedMephisto -bythe Germans -came into Australian possession and waseventually shippedtoBrisbane whereitisondisplay. Thereisa replica A7v named Wotan in Munster, Germany, thatwas built in 1988 based on Mephisto. Tony Reeve, Tasmania
I’dliketothank multiple readerswho contacted me about the Ayvand Mephisto in particular.Inow have muchnew
work fine on araised track but it certainly will notworkonaground levelrailway.The pointofthe cone is thatwhen entering a curvethe wheel flangewill push againstthe outerrailwhich means thatitisrunning on its maximum diameter. Thecone on the wheel means thatitwill find itsown centre on astraightlevel track thus preventing 'hunting' and is thereforelikely to de-rail. Another problem with 'square' flanges is thatifthereisno60° chamferonthe inner edgeofthe wheel it will mean thatitislikely to takea shave of the swichblade if it is Aluminium
Theother thing about the track at Gilling
is the track geometry as thisisall to do with wheel profiles and is very important. Fora start, the mainline at Gilling East wasall laid with transition curves and calculatedsuperelevation, wasdesigned by John Heslop and friends and wasbuilt forrunning at 7mph. It is very impressive to see the passenger trains with tenMark 1 coaches (weighing 28 kg each)leaning into the curves and running at ascale ninety MPHand at thatspeed one cannot feel the superelevation. Thewhole lineat Gilling wasbuilt to mainline standards even though the 'Six foot'was widened Doug Hewson, North Yorkshire
QCAD
Dear Neil, in response to the leter from MikeCollins in the July Postbag re CADsofware,I would liketosuggest thathehas alook at QCAD from RibbonSofGmbH.I find this relatively easytouse and it can be tried free
information and will have to completely revise my owndrawings(see theAlibre Atom3D screenshot). Tony also mentioned
with some limitations. If youlikeit, a full Professional version with anever expiring licence can be purchased at arelatively small cost, and thereisa book/manual alsoavailable from Lulu.com.
Keith Keen, by email
some issues with our newdesign, which I hope we have largely addressed since issue 4763 –Neil.
Readers' Tips
We have £30 in gif vouchers courtesyofengineering suppliers Chester Machine Tools foreachmonth's 'Top Tip'.Email your workshop tips to meweditor@mortons.co.uk marking them 'Readers Tips', and you could be awinner.Try to keep your tip to no more than 400 wordsand apictureordrawing.Don’t forget to include your address!Every monthwe'll choose awinner forthe Tipofthe Month and theywillwin £30 in gif vouchers from ChesterMachine Tools.Visit www.chesterhobbystore.com to plan howtospend yours!
AParting Tool Holder
Thistip to improve aspecial parting toolholder is from MikeWorth:
If likem e, yo uh aveam ini-la th e with aQ CT Pyou ma yf ind th at parting is pain ful. Even wit h an ice, slim part ing blade, the to ol pressurea pplied at ap oin tway of ft he side of the to ol-pos ti so ft en to om uch: everything tips of ft ot he le f t, leading to cha tt er or even binding and breaking the blade. Th is problem can be fixed by bringing the load more in line with the support ing saddle arr ang emen t.
I'ves een as ubs tan ti al re duct ion in parting problem ss ince ma king up as pecif ic 'p arting-blade-holder-holder '. Eac ht im eIn eed to part
of f, Iu nscrew the to ph andle en tirely, lift the whole QC TP assembly of f and drop on the holder-holder.T hi s consi st so fa bo tt om disc, which se ts the to ol heigh t, and at op block tha th olds th ep artin gb lade holder.Im ade it by fa cing to length, ro ughing out the slo tw ith an an gle grinder,t hen finishing up with my little Ad ep tN o. 2s haper.A lt ernatively yo uc ould easily makeo ne on am ill, or even wit ha file if yo u'veg ot moret im et han to ols!
No te tha tt he pho to sa lso sh ow my com pound slide re placed by ano ther solid block of st eel. Th is is independen to ft he holder-holder trick and improves rigidit yf or ge ner al turning .W hen Io ccasio nally need to turn at aper et c. Is imply swap the compound back in. Th eb lock is the sam eh eigh ta st he com pound, so to ol se tting se tc .a re una ff ect ed.
Please note that the first prizeofChesterVouchers is only available to UK readers.You can make multiple entries, but we reservethe right nottoaward repeat prizes to thesamepersoninorder to encouragenew entrants. All prizesare at the discretion of the Editor
Ihada false start because Imade an error; Iwas told by some well-meaning person thatthe valvegear and cylindersofa BR StandardClass 4werethe same as my 4MT but sadly,Inow realise, theyare not. They are, in fact, the same as the Standard3MT,77000 Class andthe 2-6-2 Class 3tank loco which, fortunately, Mike Jack in NewZealandiswellon with building.Hehas already had the cylinderscastbut theyare exquisite lostwax casings. Ihavehad to spend a lotoftime redrawing the cylinders, figs 64 and 65.However,the description will be justthe same, fortunately.Mike is going to supply them to TheSteam Workshop so manythankstohim for that. Although the photosofmachining the cylindersare formy4MT,the instructions aremoreorlessthe same forbothtypes of cylinder.
Now, Iwas told by numerous people thatitwouldbeimpossible to castcylinder blockswith the back plate on so Ihad a word with the foundry and theysent a chap out to my shoptotalktome. In onewordheansweredme; his reply was, “Nonsense!” Ithenasked himtoenlighten me and we had amostinteresting conversation about cores andcoreprints, about
which Idid nothaveaclue at thattime. Ithen had another conversation with one of my early 4MT buildersand he told me about a recently retired patern maker who lived in Shrewsbury.Hewas an Ex-Rolls Royceman
Doug Hewson makes astart on the cylinders of his BR StandardClass 4. 155 of these locomotives, known as Moguls, were built for British Railways.
Continued from Model Engineer &Workshop issue 4766
and he made mostofthe paterns forthe Sentinel Steam Waggons, no less! As we were going to North Wales on holiday, we made arrangements to call and seeJack and his wife, Megan and Ishowedhim the
Photo 151: Another view; these cylinders arethe sameas on our Standard Class4 Mogul.
drawingswhich areillustrated here.Hesaid that the paterns would be ready in about three weeks’ time, which Ithoughtwas quite amazing.Since finding out the errorofmy ways,however,Ihaveacquired anew photo of Mike’scylinder casting, photo 150.There are also twomoreviews;the second one is face on, photo 151 and the thirdone shows that back plate of the block, photo 152
Thenextphotoswereall suppliedbyGeof Whitaker who built 75069 which he hasnow sold on.
Geofmade astartonboring the cylindersand the first thing he did wastofit a brass bung in the borewith the centrelines marked on it. Thus marked, he could then use them to setupaboring bar and measure everything from those centrelines. In photo 153 youwill see the borebeing openedup by 1/32” which is so thatthe cylinderscan be re-bored if necessary -very unusualfor a5”gaugeengine but thatishow the full size engines were built. This means thatthe end covers do notneed anyaltering if/when the cylindersare re-bored. (Moreonthis nexttime.)
In photo 154 youcan see aplate being squared up to locate on an angle plate and photo 155 shows whythe cylindercasting needed to be vertical to allowGeofto usehis boring bar in afacing head on the milling machine to face the outer flangesof the cylinders.
We nowcome to machining the back plate and Geofhas aphoto in his collection, photo 156,showing aslab milling cuterin use with the surface setdead squarefor machining the back plate Photograph 157 is similar but taken from diferentangle.Note how the casting is clamped with barsinside
Fig: 64
Photo 152: Aviewof the back plate, an integral part of the casting.
Photo 153: Opening the bore by 1/32”
Photo 156: Aslab milling cuter faces the back plate.
Photo 157: Anotherviewofthe operation.
Photo 158: Taking askim of the back plateedge.
Photo 154: Squaring up aplate.
Photo 155: Facing acylinderflange vertically.You can see an exhaust port emerging.
the twobores. Nowwehavegot to that stage, and the bores aresquaretothe back plate, the next job wastouse an angle plate -again with the back of the cylinder casting clamped to the angle plate with acouple of G-clamps and the bores setsquare- to take askimof the botomofthe back plate.Thisisshown in photo 158 and, once again, photo 159 shows adiferentviewofthe plate clamped in place.
We nowcome to machining the steam inletpipe and the seating forthe anti-vacuum valve. Aspecial mounting wasmade forboring the steam inlet. Afer Eddy G. commissioned my 4MT,however,hesaid thatthe pipes from the superheaters to the cylinder blockscould do with being larger so Ihaveshown them with half inch pipesso beware!Hetook my 80080 out fora run one dayand noticed thathesteam chest pressuregaugewas only reading about half whatthe boiler pressuregauge was showing and the engine wasa bitsluggish. Other buildersofmy4MT and other locomotives Ihavedesigned needtotakenote of this. Anyway, photo 160 shows Geof’s set-up formachining this steam inlet. Photograph 161 shows Geoftapping the holes for thecylinder covers using the drilling table to getthe holes dead square. He also used asimilar set-up fortapping the drain cock holes and photo 162 shows this.
Photo 159: Another viewofthis operationshowing theset-up.
